As a little side project I got interested in adding a MicroID extension for MediaWiki. MicroID is a teensy little format for asserting that the owner of a particular Web user account is also the owner of another account (like an email account or an OpenID). Adding support to MediaWiki means that Wikitravel users can verify their accounts with claimID or other similar services. Fun stuff, relatively easy, and useful for everyone -- the best kind of hacks.
tags: microid mediawiki wikitravel identity openid
Confidential to Mako
So, one thing that makes a Web site WebSoftwareFriendly is making sure (as best as possible) that each page has one and only one URL. It makes it easier when doing summaries and statistics and such for Web software to know that one page has One True Identity. Otherwise, it divides that page's count of hits, incoming links, citations, etc. etc. between the two (or more) different URLs. The Web software then has an incorrect view of the world and is less useful for human beings.
Planet Debian is a site like that. You can get to the same front page either through http://planet.debian.org/ or http://planet.debian.net/ . It may be a good idea to use a 301 redirect (moved permanently) to tell browsers and other Web software that one or the other URL is the definitive one. (I'm partial to the .net one, but not for any good reason).
The following code somewhere in the Apache configuration for Planet Debian should do the trick:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^planet\.debian\.net [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$
RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://planet.debian.net/$1 [L,R=301]
It just says, "If the client requests an URL that doesn't use our preferred hostname, redirect them with a 301 HTTP code to the same URL at the right hostname." Web software like blog aggregators, Firefox (or Iceweasel) extensions, or any other software that does HTTP stuff at a low level will benefit.
tags: mako planet debian websoftwarefriendly nosey
Geograph
Quick link here: the Geograph British Isles project is totally cool. Creative Commons-licensed photos for every map square in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Their coverage is already quite good.